ALL NECESSARY FORCE

Terrorists plan to strike America with a vicious blow, and it’s Pike Logan’s job to stop them. This fast-moving thriller poses the dilemma: Must he obey the law, or must he use all necessary force to thwart the enemy?

In the second book in Taylor’s series (One Rough Man, 2011), Logan is part of the top-secret Taskforce set up to handle asymmetric threats to the United States. Muslim terrorists plan an attack on the Great Satan’s power grid, and they set out to kill anyone who is remotely in their way. Logan is no pansy himself as he terminates his share of bad guys. Also he encourages Jennifer Cahill to earn a place on Taskforce, to the chagrin of his chauvinistic colleagues. Cahill proves as tough as any man, and she has a conscience too: you can get her to kill, but you can’t make her like it. As the story veers back and forth between the terrorists and the Taskforce, the weight of saving America from disaster falls squarely on Logan and his team—can they stop the impending simultaneous attacks on nuclear power plants? It’s a simple post–Cold War scenario: The black ex-convict finds Mohammed in prison and wages jihad against America. Meanwhile, the hero breaks all the rules, because that’s what heroes do. Logan angers some of his superiors because of actions that could land him in prison, even though the whole concept of Taskforce is that it’s supposed to be extralegal. Whose side will President Warren take in this dispute? What makes the story even more interesting is the moral component Cahill adds, forcing Logan to examine his conscience as they both do what they must to protect the rest of us.